Poverty and Inequality

by David B. Grusky (Editor), Ravi Kanbur (Editor)

This volume brings together leading public intellectuals―Amartya Sen, Martha C. Nussbaum, François Bourguignon, William J. Wilson, Douglas S. Massey, and Martha A. Fineman―to take stock of current analytic understandings of poverty and inequality. Contemporary research on inequality has largely relied on conceptual advances several decades old, even though the basic structure of global inequality is changing in fundamental ways. The reliance on conventional poverty indices, rights-based approaches to poverty reduction, and traditional modeling of social mobility has left scholars and policymakers poorly equipped to address modern challenges. The contributors show how contemporary poverty is forged in neighborhoods, argue that discrimination in housing markets is a profound source of poverty, suggest that gender inequalities in the family and in the social evaluation of the caretaking role remain a hidden dimension of inequality, and develop the argument that contemporary inequality is best understood as an inequality in fundamental human capabilities. This book demonstrates in manifold ways how contemporary scholarship and policy must be recast to make sense of new and emerging forms of poverty and social exclusion.

Genres: Nonfiction

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 24, 2006

Reviews

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects essays by half a dozen major progressive economists and sociologists on how we need to change or revamp theoretical/conceptual underpinnings of poverty and inequality research. This was almost completely new stuff to me; will list for my own benefit the main points of each essay:

Intro by Grusky & Kanbur
Historical overview of past few decades of poverty research in economics and sociology.

Amartya Sen
Outlines again need to concentrate on inequality of capabilities/functionings vs. inequality of income, looking especially at how this might affect research on China's economic development, which is characterized both by decreased poverty but increased inequality in a number of different ways. Explains how the idea of relative deprivation has its roots in Adam Smith.

Martha Nussbaum
Looks at Sen's body of writing on inequality, notes his reticence in outlining specific entitlements and capabilities that should be taken into account, proposes her own list.

Bourguignon
Explicates why it is hard to measure this stuff

William Julius Wilson
Review of his theories in The Truly Disadvantaged, call for further study in the way neighborhood effects influence labor market attachment

Douglas Massey
My favorite essay -- easy to read, calm. Reframes the argument for reducing inequality in terms of the market

Martha Albert Fineman
Questions assumptions in political theory about self-sufficiency and dependency -- in fact we all probably spend more of our lives in a dependent state than in a autonomous one. Points out the central importance and devaluation of unpaid caretaking activities, which frequently fall to women more than men.